1. Field
Exemplary embodiments of the invention relate to a liquid crystal display (“LCD”), and, more particularly, to a vertically-aligned LCD.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (“LCD”), which is one of the most widely used flat panel displays, is a display device that controls the amount of transmitted light by applying a voltage to an electrode to rearrange the liquid crystal molecules in a liquid crystal layer.
LCDs are largely classified into vertically-aligned LCDs and horizontally-aligned LCDs according to the arrangement method of liquid crystal molecules. Among these, a vertically-aligned LCD is characterized in that liquid crystal molecules are arranged such that the major axis thereof is aligned in a direction perpendicular to a display panel, and has an advantage of having a large contrast ratio and a wide viewing angle.
In a vertically-aligned LCD, in order to increase a viewing angle, an alignment layer is configured to allow liquid crystals to have a pre-tilt angle using a photo-alignment technology.
According to such a photo-alignment technology, in order to increase a viewing angle, the liquid crystals in the alignment layer must have pre-tilt angle of at least four directions. For this purpose, the alignment layer must be divided into four regions, and each of the regions must be separately irradiated with light.